The past thousand years^[1]http://www.timemaps.com/history/middle-east-2500bc have seen many upheavals in the Middle East, particularly in Mesopotamia^[2]http://www.timemaps.com/history/iraq-1500bc and surrounding regions. Tribes from the fringes of the old civilizations have come in to create new states and empires: the Hittite,^[3]http://www.timemaps.com/history/turkey-1500bc Mitanni and Babylonian empires are ruled by Indo-European speakers from the north and east. These states are joined by the New Kingdom of Egypt^[4]http://www.timemaps.com/history/ancient-egypt-1500bc to form the leading powers of the region.

These centralized states are home to highly sophisticated – and already ancient – civilizations, with a complex commercial life, bureaucracies, and well-organized armies based on a new technology, the chariot. The struggles between them dominate the history of the Middle Eastern world at this period.